128 



Appendix I: 



J. D. 



Hooker, 

 Esq., M.D., 

 C.B., r.R.s. 



1871. 



conversations or lectures to persons visiting or to par- 

 ticular or special classes visiting the museum. 



6666. Only twice that I can remember have any special 

 applications at any time toeen made from working men's 

 colleges or other societies for mutual instruction, ex- 

 pressing a d'esire to avail themselves of such methods of 

 instruction. 



6667. The tickets generally give as much detailed' in- 

 formation concerning the plants as is likely to foe read, 

 and this sometimes is' very considerable. The Board of 

 Trade returns of the quantities introduced during the 

 year of sugar, coflfee, spices, and so forth, are given, 

 the countries from which these products come, their native 

 names, as far as we can ascertain them, and very often 

 interesting information culled from books of travels. 



6668. There is also a Scientific Library at Kew "in 

 the same apartments with the her'barium." 



6669. It is entirely a library of botanical reference. 



6670. Kew is much resorted to by foreign botanists. 

 !N'o botanical monograph is considered complete which has 

 not been worked up with the materials at Kew. 



6671. Botanical societies throughout Europe and the 

 civilised world are more or less in relation with Kew. 

 We are in communication with aDmost everybody of the 

 Idnd in America, India, and in the Colonies as weU as in 

 Europe. 



6672. Both for the purpose of excihanging specimens 

 and likewise for oommunicating the latest observations in 

 i)otany. 



6673. "We do not take into account those who come for 

 a day or so, but of working botanists who come and stay 

 for some time at Kew, there are sometimes as many as 

 '20 foreign students in a year, and when one comes he very 

 often does duty for several others. 



6674. We never have had) applications from local 

 museums in England for specimens of plants from the her- 

 barium, and to a very limited extent indeed from the 

 museums. We occasionally have applications from pro- 

 fessors for duplicates of tree-fern stems, and objects ot 

 that description, and these are complied with when pos- 

 sible. 



6675. From the resources which Kew has at its disposal, 

 or might have, from marine expeditions and other 

 sources, if a system of distribution were organised at the 

 Government estaJblishments, Kew could supply, sup- 

 posiing such a desire to arise, a considerable number of 

 duplicates very largely. " The difficulty is in making ap- 

 plication at the right time. Hitherto duplicates have been 

 distributed as fast as possible, because they take up a 

 great deal of room and encourage insects. My plan has 

 hitherto been, whenever I receive a collection, whether 

 from a Government expedition or from a private source, 

 to have it at once named and catalogued, the first com- 

 plete set deposited in the herbarium or museum, and the 

 ■duplicates distribuited." 



6676. Two things would therefore appear to be neces- 

 sary, some means by which the local wants sliomcl he 

 Ascertained by persons properly qualified, and' likewise 

 a constant knowledge of the means' which the Botanic 

 Garden Museum at Kew has of supplying those wants. 



6677. "It could be easily acoomplislhed " by an In- 

 spector of Museums. " The demand for botanical objects 

 would be always very small, and confined to such as are 

 striking or attractive, whilst a vast number of economic 

 products such as local museums would want might be 

 bought anywhere, as cocoa-nuts, sugar, rice, starch, and 

 «o forth. Special objects like sections of tree ferns, or 

 rare woods, would be rarely sought by local museums. 

 Taut there would be no difficulty in supplying them." 



6678. In the North of England there are what are 

 called naturalists' societies, composed of men really very 

 anxious to improve themselves in the study of botany 

 among other subjects. 



6679. If a well-ordered museum existed in which the 

 Tarious blanks were from time to time supplied, so as to 

 "have a complete series of specimens for consultation, 

 such a museum situated in a populous district migiht be 

 of great use in cultivating a knowledge of natural science ; 

 "but "as far as herbarium specimens are concerned I 

 think it sihould be almost confined to a collection of local, 

 or at most British plants. I do not think that there is 

 .■my prospect of a general herbariiun being valued even in 

 populous districts ; but a typical herbarium might be 

 ■useful." 



6680. "At present the herbarium is accommodated in 

 5,1 old house that is not fireproof. The collection being 



the most valuaible in the world, illustrating the rise and 

 growth of systematic botany during the last half century 

 (because of the enormous number of typical specimens 

 which it contains), should be accommodated in a fireprool 

 building." 



6681. A project has been put forward for the trans- 

 ference of the Natural History collections of the British 

 Museum to South Kensington? — I think it would be of 

 very great importance if that were done, that the British 

 Museum and Kew should be no longer in any sense com- 

 peting bodies, but that they should be brought into har- 

 monious relations, and each made ancillary to the other. 



6682. The two museums should have certain separate 

 functions to a great extent. 



6683. As to the proper distribution of duties between 

 the two museums : — " With regard to one very important 

 branch of botany, the palseontological, I think it would 

 be best that it should remain in or near London, it being 

 as essential to geologists as to botanists. It requires 

 illustration by an herbarium, but not by an herbarium 

 of the extent and description of the great Kew her- 

 barium, which would be extremely cumbrous to use in 

 relation to a palteontological collection. _ Wherever that 

 palfeontological collection is, there ought to be a good 

 herbarium, and I think it would be very advantageous if, 

 instead of being arranged as the Kew herbarium is, 

 primarily upon botanical principles, it should be 

 primarily arranged geographically. It would be a very 

 great advantage, to persons coming from Australia, for 

 instance, and bringing plants which they wished to know 

 something about, if they could consult a local collection 

 Ol Australian plants, and thus name their specimens by 

 simple comparison. Such an herbarium would, I con- 

 ceive, be also more useful to the paleontologist, because 

 the key to fossil botany is very much a geographical one. 

 There should also be with the palteontological collection- 

 special collections of recent fruits, leaves, itc, directly 

 illustrative of known fossil plants, and placed along with 

 them in their cases." 



6684. Besides the transference of the collection of 

 fossil botany to South Kensington, is there no other 

 change which you would desire to make in the Museum 

 at Kew? — I would still keep Kew as the great scientific 

 working herbarium, to which, as hitherto, all botanists 

 must come ; and I think that the Herbarium at the 

 British Museum should be named comparatively and con- 

 sistently with that at Kew. 



6685. Therefore, the two establishments being an- 

 cillary, should be under one common head ? — ^I think that 

 the two herbaria should be rearranged under one head, 

 and be brought under one system of management. 



6686. The several officers should in future work in 

 harmony, but the two Herbaria should be under the 

 direction of the heads of the establishment at Kew and 

 of the new Natural History Museum at South Kensing- 

 ton respectively. 



6687. As to "any separate functions which the museum 

 at South Kensington might fulfil, which you would not 

 expect^ to be fulfilled by that at Kew, I think that a 

 herbarium affording the ready and rapid means of naming 

 plants would fidfLL one function, and the use of the same 

 for the purposes of the palEeontological collection a 

 second ; and I think that there ought to be besides this, 

 at the British Museum, an instructional botanical collec- 

 tion for public exhibition, which would show the rela- 

 tione of plants to one another, their structure, and the 

 functions of their organs ; and illustrate by drawings 

 and dissections of flowers, woods, and fruits, &c., the 

 general features of the vegetable kingdom." 



6688. Respecting any soheme of instruction such as 

 that which was adverted to in a previous part of my 

 evidence, it would be more Hkely to be successful at 

 South Kensington, from its vicinity to London, than at 

 Kew, not "' only from its accessiljility, but from the 

 nature of our climate, which would render it difficult to 

 collect an audience at Kew." 



6689. The relation of the director of Kew Gardens 

 and the whole establishment there to the Government is 

 that "I am immediately responsible to the First Com- 

 missioner of H.M. Works. 



6690. I address all letters and my annual report to 

 him." 



6691. There is "at Kew nothing like the body ot 

 Trustees which exists in connection with the Britisih 

 Museum."' 



6692-95. It would not be advantageous to have an;y 

 such body in connection with Kew. There would not be 

 the same obiection to a board of visitors as the visitors 



J. D. 



Hooker, 



Esq.. M.D., 

 C.B., F.R.S. 



1871 



